It seriously feels like we packed away the Christmas tree two months ago. I cannot BELIEVE we’re half-way through November. Yikes!
Every Christmas I make a massive batch of something sweet or spicy to pop into jars for teachers, family and friends. Za’atar was popular, and dukkah is equally tasty and a cinch to whip up and package; especially if you employ child labour in your home, as we do.
I buy my fabric pieces at Amitié – they have a huge basket of off-cuts, the perfect size for topping jars. The raw tangerine string is from Araliya. It’s handmade from coconut fibre, and it was a birthday pressie (thanks Chris)!
For a more substantial gift, a small spice bowl could be added – Ingrid Tufts makes beautiful little hand-thrown porcelain condiment bowls.
My dukkah is adapted from Greg Malouf’s recipe in one of my most thumbed-through, dog-eared cookbooks, Arabesque. I made a couple of adjustments, replacing the hazelnuts with toasted pistachios and almonds (I’m far too lazy to skin a bulk load of hazelnuts). I also used less salt, adding a touch of thyme. Dried thyme is great for adding a salt-like kick to spice blends.
Dukkah is a flavour explosion! It can be sprinkled with gay abandon on just about anything; including poached eggs, salad or veggies (eg. my roasted cauliflower and chestnuts with dukkah).
Here are three more great ways to use dukkah. You’ll find the recipes below.Spiced lamb pizza is a traditional Lebanese treat which usually contains allspice and/or cumin. In my humble opinion dukkah tastes even better.Spiced honey dukkah popcorn is salty, sweet, spicy and incredibly moreish. We had fun experimenting and taste-testing this recipe – four enormous bowls, now gone!Char-grilled dukkah lamb is a family favourite, and quick to prepare. Served with tahini sauce and tray-roasted veggies, it makes a super-tasty, healthy meal. Leftover roasted veggies and lamb, if any, can be tossed through a simple rocket, freekeh or couscous salad, and dressed with tahini sauce. We often cook up double the lamb and veggies for this purpose. Enjoy!

Place coriander, cumin, thyme, salt, pepper and half the toasted sesame seeds into a large bowl and mix well. Blend almonds, pistachios and the remaining toasted sesame seeds in batches in a food processor, transferring to the bowl of dried spices as you go. Don’t grind them too fine or you’ll end up with a paste! Nuts should be chunky, and just broken.
Divide dukkah into sterilised jars, top the lids with a small square of fabric and seal with string. You can fashion your own funnel from cardboard, to make pouring into the jars easier. Reserve some dukkah for yourself, for the three recipes below!Very loosely based on Greg Malouf’s recipe in Arabesque.

You can toast your own sesame seeds or buy them pre-roasted from Asian and Middle Eastern food stores.

Spices can be bought in bulk from Asian and Middle Eastern food stores. Mine were purchased, as always, from Oasis; where you can also find pre-shelled pistachios!

Most dukkah recipes call for whole coriander and cumin seeds, crushed in a spice or coffee grinder, or manually with a mortar and pestle. When making dukkah in bulk, pre-ground spices are recommended, as the crushing would take weeks! Incidentally, food processors aren’t great for seed-crushing as the seeds slip past the blades.

Dukkah should be stored in a cool dry place, and will keep for 3–6 months.

Preheat oven to 250°C (480ºF).
Place two pizza trays into the hot oven to warm up, for at least 10 minutes. This is an important step for crispy-based pizzas.
Divide wholemeal pizza dough into four. Sprinkle flour on work surface. Roll out each piece of dough into a log shape with your hands. With a rolling pin, roll each log into a large flat oval, approx. 12 x 30cm (5 x 12″). Lift the four bases onto two sheets of baking paper.
Place the chopped lamb, Pistachio and almond dukkah and pomegranate molasses into a food processor and process until minced.
Brush each pizza base lightly with olive oil.
Arrange the prepared lamb, onion and tomato over each base, leaving a 2cm (.8″) border.
Carefully slide pizzas and baking paper onto pre-heated pizza trays and bake for 10–12 minutes. Cook separately if they don’t fit side by side.
Remove from oven. Scatter with fresh parsley and serve with lemon wedges for squeezing; and Tomato and cucumber salad.Recipe very loosely adapted from this one by Greg Malouf.

Melt the coconut oil in your largest saucepan, over medium-high heat.
Add the popcorn kernels and cover.
When the kernels begin to pop, gently shake the pan now and again to prevent burning. Once the popping slows down to 2 or 3 seconds between each pop, remove the pan from the heat and tip popcorn into a large bowl.
Melt the butter and honey in a small saucepan. Add Pistachio and almond dukkah and salt and stir to combine.
Pour over the popcorn and stir to coat evenly. Tip into a large bowl and serve.

Place lamb pieces in a non-metallic dish or bowl.♦ Combine olive oil and Pistachio and almond dukkah and spread over the lamb pieces. Cover and allow to marinate for at least one hour or overnight.
Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
Place halved potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, and simmer for 5 minutes, until just tender. Drain and pat dry with a clean tea towel.
Place par-boiled potatoes, sweet potato, onions, zucchini and oil into a large bowl. Toss to coat. Place into a large (preferably cast iron) baking pan, scatter with salt and pepper and roast for 45–50 minutes, turning every 10–15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside. Veggies can be served warm or at room temperature.
When you’re ready to serve, cook the lamb. Preheat a lightly-oiled barbecue or chargrill plate to medium–high heat. Cook lamb for 4 minutes each side, or until cooked to your liking. We like ours rare-ish. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes.
Slice lamb thickly across the grain. To serve, pile roasted veggies onto four plates. Top with sliced lamb, drizzle with tahini sauce and scatter with coriander and extra dukkah.

Kid tip: Kids will love the char-grilled lamb in a wrap with tahini sauce (or smashed avocado), grated carrot and lettuce. Pluck some roast potato and sweet potato wedges from the roasting pan and call them ‘chips’.

I am very new (just this year) to creating spice blends. I adore the process of measurement and the aromatics are incredible. Just yesterday I mixed ras el hanout. It was wonderfully intoxicating. I must make dukkah now! Adding nuts to the spice mixture is brilliant. Thank you for the inspiration! And as gifts?! Perfect idea Saskia.

Love your dukkah and what a great idea to package it up as small gifts! Perfect present 🙂 I just bought a cookie stamp and thought that we would use child labor as well and make cookies for the teachers. I thought that they might be fun to decorate. But I will definitely have to tuck your idea away for later use as I have been thinking of what to make for our neighbors 🙂

It’s amazing what kids will do for free 🙂
I have a teacher friend who loves receiving cookies the best (and packaged shell-shaped chocolates the least). I’m thinking I might make jam for the neighbors (love any excuse to make jam). Hope you have a great white Christmas!

Ohhh, I shouldn’t be so presumptuous next time. You’re the 2nd reader who learned about dukkah here! It’s quite popular/common in Melbourne. Middle Eastern food had a real boom time here a few years ago, thanks to some pretty amazing local chefs; so now most Middle Eastern spices are pretty easy to find. Dukkah is really yummy. It’s great served simply with sourdough bread dunked first in olive oil, then dukkah. Yum!

You are very, very good, Saskia. Nothing better than a good basic recipe that can open up a whole new world …. Contrary to my usual greedy meat loving self, I have chosen the popcorn as my must-make recipe from this bunch, as I have a few friends doing the Vegan Challenge right now, and I think that this dish would make them go bananas. (Unless I’ve missed something and it’s actually not vegan. Oh, maybe honey isn’t vegan??!!) Anyway, they’d appreciate it after the challenge is over. For sure. 🙂

You’ve had me Googling Sandra, and I’ve just spent the last ½ hour reading about the Great Vegan Honey Debate. Apparently officially it’s a vegan no-go as it’s animal-derived.
There’s butter in the popcorn too… I found a recipe for making pretty damn yummy-looking vegan butter though!
Seems a lot of effort to go to for popcorn 🙂
You could use more coconut oil, and you could definitely sub brown sugar or maple syrup for the honey. Thanks for sparking an interesting reading session for me this morning!

I adore dukkah. Seriously, I could eat it every day. Particularly with almonds and pistachios (like this blend, which sounds divine!). Your suggestions for using the dukkah are awesome Sas, particularly the popcorn!!! I’ve used dukkah with scrambled eggs a few times (for breakfast, with sourdough and rocket) but now I’m itching to try it with pizza. Yum (and that label you made is adorable) xx

We’re about to have scrambled eggs with sliced tomato for brekkie – I’m going to shake a bit of dukkah over it. Excellent idea! Yep, almond/pistachio is my favorite combo too, but I do like roasted hazelnuts if I’m making a small batch. Thanks for the label compliment!!

That’s great you picked up a new word Norma (I’m constantly learning new ones on your blog)! Maybe dukkah is more well-known over here. We have some chefs with Lebanese backgrounds – Greg Malouf being the Godfather – who’ve promoted Middle Eastern ingredients over the years, in cookbooks and in their cafes/restaurants. We no longer need to hunt for things like dukkah or pomegranate molasses, and it’s fantastic!